Soil Improvement

Methods of soil improvement

•  Precompression •  Vertical drains •  In-situ densification •  Grouting •  Reinforcement

Precompression

•  Simply place a surcharge fill on top of the soil that requires consolidation

•  Once sufficient consolidation has taken place, the fill can be removed and construction takes place

•  Surcharge fills are typically 10-25 feet thick and generally produces settlement of 1 to 3 feet.

•  Most effective in clay soil

Advantages of precompression

•  Requires only conventional earthmoving equipment

•  Any grading contractor can perform the work

•  Long track record of success

Disadvantages of precompression

•  Surcharge fill must extend horizontally at least 10 m beyond the perimeter of the planned construction, which may not be possible at confined sites

•  Transport of large quantities of soil required •  Surcharge must remain in place for months

or years, thus delaying construction

Vertical Drains

•  Vertical drains are installed under a surcharge load to accelerate the drainage of impervious soils and thus speed up consolidation

•  These drains provide a shorter path for the water to flow through to get away from the soil

•  Time to drain clay layers can be reduced from years to a couple of months

Vertical Drains

Wick Drains

•  Geosynthetics used as a substitute to sand columns

•  Installed by being pushed or vibrated into the ground

•  Most are about 100 mm wide and 5 mm thick

Typical installation of wick drains

•  Typically spaced 3 m on centers

Prefabricated Drains Available in US

• Alidrain

• Aliwick

• Ameridrain

• Colbond Drain

• Mebradrain

In-situ densification

•  Most effective in sands •  Methods used in conventional earthwork are

only effective to about 2 m below the surface

•  In-situ methods like dynamic deep compaction are for soils deeper than can be compacted from the surface

Dynamic vs. Vibratory

Vibratory probe compaction

•  Long probe mounted onto a vibratory pile driver compacts the soil around the probe; penetrations spaced in a grid pattern similar to vertical drains

Vibratory probe compaction

Beware of transmission of ground vibrations

Vibroflotation

•  Probe includes the vibrator mechanism and water jets

•  Probe is lowered into the ground using a crane •  Vibratory eccentric force induces densification

and water jets assist in insertion and extraction •  Vibratory probe compaction is effective if silt

content is less than 12-15% and clay is less than 3%

•  Probes inserted in grid pattern at a spacing of 1.5 to 3 m

Vibroflotation

Ground Type Relative Effectiveness

Sands Excellent

Silty Sands Marginal to Good

Silts Poor

Clays Not applicable

Mine Spoils Good (if granular)

Dumped Fill Depends upon nature of fill

Garbage Not Applicable

Vibro-replacement stone columns

•  Vibro-Replacement extends the range of soils that can be improved by vibratory techniques to include cohesive soils. Reinforcement of the soil with compacted granular columns or "stone columns" is accomplished by the top-feed method.

Top-feed vibroflot rig

Adding stone in top-feed installation Bottom-feed vibroflot rig

Vibro-replacement stone columns

Dynamic compaction

•  Uses a special crane to lift 5-30 tons to heights of 40 to 100 feet then drop these weights onto the ground

•  Cost effective method of densifying loose sands and silty soils up to 15 to 30 feet deep

Grouting

•  Defined as the injection of a special liquid or slurry material called grout into the ground for the purpose of improving the soil or rock

•  Types of grouts – Cementitious grouts – Chemical grouts

Grouting methods •  Intrusion grouting

–  Consists of filling joints or fractures with grout –  Primary benefit is reduction in hydraulic conductivity –  Used to prepare foundation and abutments for dams –  Usually done using cementitious grouts

•  Permeation grouting –  Injection of thin grouts into the soil –  Once the soil cures, becomes a solid mass –  Done using chemical grouts –  Used for creating groundwater barriers or preparign

ground before tunneling

Grouting methods

•  Compaction grouting –  When low-slump

compaction grout is injected into granular soils, grout bulbs are formed that displace and densify the surrounding loose soils.

–  Used to repair structures that have excessive settlement

Grouting methods

•  Jet grouting –  Developed in Japan –  Uses a special pipe with horizontal jets that inject grout

into the ground at high pressures –  Jet grouting is an erosion/replacement system that

creates an engineered, in situ soil/cement product known as Soilcretesm. Effective across the widest range of soil types, and capable of being performed around subsurface obstructions and in confined spaces, jet grouting is a versatile and valuable tool for soft soil stabilization, underpinning, excavation support and groundwater control.

Reinforcement •  Soil is stronger in compression than in

tension •  To improve strength in tension,

geosynthetics placed in soil for soil reinforcement

Reinforced earthwall construction

Soil Nailing

•  The fundamental concept of soil nailing consists of reinforcing the ground by passive inclusions, closely spaced, to create in-situ a coherent gravity structure and thereby to increase the overall shear strength of the in-situ soil and restrain its displacements.